In clear and lively prose that avoids jargon, the author carefully and systematically examines the many kinds of subtly nuanced words or word-pairs of everyday discourse such as 'and'-'but', 'before'-'ere', 'Chinese'-'Chink', and 'sweat'-'perspiration', that have proven resistant to truth-conditional explanations of meaning.

Richard Kortum is Associate Professor of Philosophy at East Tennessee State University, USA. He was educated at Duke University, Cambridge University, and Oxford University where he received his D.Phil. in philosophy of language under Sir Michael Dummett.